A dust-up between Texas lawmakers and federal officials over Texas Women’s Health Program funding has local health providers wondering if thousands of low-income Texas Panhandle women will have access to health care for much longer.

“It’s a very uncertain situation and it’s going to affect a lot of folks if we and other clinics … have to decrease our hours or services,” said David Green, who is on the board of Haven Health Clinic in Amarillo.

A state law which went into effect March 14 prevents Texas from funding abortion providers or their affiliates. Gov. Rick Perry said the law allows the state to exclude certain providers from participating in the Texas Women’s Health Program, which provides low-income women with family planning services and health screenings. The program serves uninsured Texas women ages 18 to 44 who are not currently eligible for Medicaid, with some exceptions.

However, the Obama administration has vowed to deny Medicaid funding to the state because federal law requires women be able to choose any qualified clinic for health care, The Associated Press reported.

Lacking federal money, Perry has pledged to keep the Texas Women’s Health Program funded with state dollars, but it’s not entirely clear how the Texas Health and Human Services Commission will make up the $34 million in funding the federal government supplied for the program last year, State Rep. Four Price said Monday.

“I think it’s important that the state prioritize it and find the money for it and I think we will, but like any state expenditure in times of tight budgetary considerations, it’s difficult,” Price said.

From September 2010 to September 2011, Haven Health Clinics, 1501 S. Taylor St., performed 2,870 pap smears funded by the Women’s Health Program, said Shayne Layne, a clinic nurse. Of those pap smears, 513 required a follow-up due to abnormalities and clinic employees found cervical cancer in four of those cases, she said. Clinic personnel also detected four cases of breast cancer among women receiving annual exams funded by the Medicaid program.

The Women’s Health Program funds birth control, pregnancy testing, screenings for breast and cervical cancers, sexually transmitted diseases, as well as hypertension, depression, diabetes and other conditions, Layne said. The program does not fund abortions.

The latest data available from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission shows 183,537 women enrolled in the Women’s Health Program in 2010. Former Haven Health Clinic CEO Ron Barwick said the program provides care for about 6,000 women in the Texas Panhandle, and about 40 percent of women covered by the program statewide receive care at Planned Parenthood clinics. Haven officials announced Monday that Barwick resigned from the clinic, and Green said he could not provide any additional information. Attempts to reach Barwick for comment were unsuccessful Monday.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit March 17 against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the funding dispute, which Price said is the right approach in dealing with the conflict.

“I think Texas has historically had the ability to determine the criteria for qualified providers … and only now that the state has determined that public money is no longer going to fund abortion providers or their affiliates, the president’s administration stepped in and claimed it was a violation of federal law,” Abbott said.

In a March 23 letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison urged state and federal officials to “sit down as soon as possible” to find a way for Texas to receive the federal funding while “assuring compliance with state laws against funding abortion clinics.”

Director of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Cindy Mann said the federal government will gradually fade out program funding over the next few months to protect women from a sudden loss in coverage, the AP reported.

Mann said Texas must submit a plan to take over or get rid of the program by April 16, and the plan must be approved by federal officials.